An important part of OPAL’s practice—and of our firm’s success—has been collaborating with clients whose vision aligns with ours, and whose energy and ideas inspire us to accomplish more than we thought we were capable of. In recent years, no client has exemplified that dynamic more than Harriet and Alan Lewis, of the Boston-based Lewis Family Foundation. In 2014 the Lewises challenged us to design a flagship building for their Alnoba leadership training center in rural New Hampshire, a structure that would incorporate the best of traditional craft and local materials—including three antique timber barn frames—while achieving the highest levels of sustainability and building performance.
The results of that collaboration were the first Passive House certified building of its type in New England, and an ongoing relationship with the Lewises, from whose example we have learned much about leadership—in environmental stewardship, in business, and in life.
So we were especially honored when OPAL partner and principal architect Matt O’Malia was selected to receive one of four 2019 Alnoba Environmental Leadership Awards. Matt O’Malia was chosen to receive the Alnoba CEO Environmental Leadership Award, which was “established to support, inspire and recognize business leaders who help save the earth we share.” A statement from Alnoba lauded Matt for defining a practical, cost-effective approach to sustainable architecture and construction and for founding multiple companies to translate that approach into marketable services and products, calling him a leader who “blazed the trail in New England for Passive House design and who is now redefining the sustainable design industry.”
Matt was privileged to share the podium with three other award winners and to learn more about their inspiring work. The Moral Courage in Leadership Award went to the Bears Ears Intertribal Coalition, for its successful effort to protect 1.35 million acres of ancestral Native American homelands. Francinar Soares Martins Baré, of the Coordinating Body of Indigenous Organizations from the Brazilian Amazon, was honored with the International Indigenous Leadership Award for her advocacy for the rights of indigenous people, and for her work to enlist more women in that effort. The Emerging Social Entrepreneur Award went to Steph Spiers, a cofounder of Solstice, a company that promotes access to community-shared solar energy facilities “to put affordable clean energy within reach of every American.”
Each Alnoba Environmental Leadership Award is accompanied by a generous cash contribution to a charity of the recipient’s choice. Matt has directed that his be donated to Waterfall Arts, a Belfast, Maine-based nonprofit community arts organization.
